1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a cereal mill for processing grain and the like. More particularly it is concerned with a mill having three corrugated, non-intercalating rollers disposed in an inverted pyramidal configuration and rotated at different speeds so as to advantageously provide a pair of processing passages or nips without the conventional need for a fourth roller.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Roller mills are widely used in the grain industry for size reduction processes such as cracking, flaking and grinding. Such mills have been used for hundreds of years and have traditionally provided pairs of rollers, each pair being closely configured to define a passageway so that the grain travels through one or more passages between respective pairs of rollers in the course of a processing regimen.
In order to reduce the number of components, and thus the attendant construction costs, various schemes have been proposed for utilizing one roller in conjunction two other rollers so that two passages are formed between the three rollers. These configurations have been substantially vertical in nature and thus have required additional equipment to ensure that grain being processed from the first passage is fed into the next passage rather than being discharged randomly.
What is needed is a three roller mill which needs no feeding mechanism for introducing the grain to the second passage point. Such a device would channel substantially all grain from the first passage to the second without requiring any additional guiding structure to accomplish this purpose.